Page 79 of Ghost of a Chance
“Oh, Kirst.That sucks.I’m sorry.”
“Me too.”
Jasper wanted to know more.“Did your friends have your back?”
“I didn’t really have a friend group or anything.I felt humiliated and then mad at myself for letting him make me feel that way.”
“Men can be dicks,” he admitted.
“Not all of them.”Having her by his side was everything.Back then he wouldn’t have appreciated a woman like her.
She watched him with those serious brown eyes of hers.Pulling her into his arms, he lowered his head and kissed her.Her arms wrapped around his waist.He kept the kiss gentle, wanting to show her how much she meant to him without saying the words.Though he knew he wasn’t a subtle man.He wanted her to feel in every part of her being how much she meant to him.
That the douchebag who’d dumped her had been an idiot.
He lifted his head.
“What was that for?”she asked.
“You looked like you needed a kiss.”
“Did I?”she asked.
“Yup.”
“That party you were at the night that Paul died…walk me through it.”
“So… I forgot, but Paul rode with me in the Uber to the party because Victor asked him to come pick him up before he had to go to work.While we waited for Victor I badgered him to come in for a few minutes,” he said.Knowing better than to push her intimately any further right now.
“Where?”
He glanced around.That night it had been lightly raining.“That corner over there.We waited for the Uber and I saw over his shoulder that he was going to the lab after he dropped Victor at work.”
As much as he’d loved being part of the frat, and having a group of men who were his brothers, he’d wanted Paul to stay that night.To let loose with him.Their time in college was limited and he didn’t want to miss out on the experience with his best friend.
“I was being mean and selfish.He pointed it out before he got in the Uber.His last words to me were ‘stop playing at being an adult and start being one.’”
Eighteen
It was funny how words like that could scar someone.Kirsty had felt that way about her first agent.The one who’d said she needed to write to trends until she learned how to write, period.Her agent had been right but those words had been hard to digest.
But this cut deeper for her.No wonder Jasper was having a hard time saying goodbye to Paul.That night had been monumental before Paul’s death.
“That’s some tough love.”
“That was Paul.In a way you remind me of him.”
“The tough part?”
“Sure, but more the way you care about Gia.I think…no hedging it, I wanted that for me and Paul but we were never there.”
“I’m sorry you didn’t get a chance.”
“Yeah.That night… I flipped him off, told him to fuck off just to prove how wrong he was.Walked away without a backward glance,” Jasper said, rubbing his hand over his eyes.
His grief was like a cloud hanging over him.There was still so much that she didn’t know.She hoped Aza could speak to whoever was trapped in the book.If the real medium couldn’t, they were all screwed.“Want to skip the party and maybe just walk?”
“Why?”
